Education Commons^™

Examining Teachers' Perspectives On An Implementation Of Elementary Engineering Teacher Professional Development, Nikki Kim Boots

Open Access Dissertations

The emphasis on engaging young learners in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professions is driving calls for educational reform. One movement that is gaining momentum is exposing K-12 learners to engineering. With the advent of the Next Generation Science Standards (2012b), engineering is being more formally integrated into standards for the K-12 level. As a result, in-service elementary teachers will need to become familiar with the core concepts of engineering to effectively teach aspects of the subject in their classrooms. Elementary engineering teacher professional development (EETPD) has been identified as a method to disseminate engineering content knowledge to elementary …

Investigating The Learning To Teach Process: Pedagogy, Innovation Adoption, Expertise Development, And Technology Integration, Sun Yan

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation reported three studies whose overarching purpose is to enhance our understanding about how teachers learn to teach by revealing the learning to teach process. Each of three studies revealed the learning to teach process from different perspectives. Guided by the Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) framework, the first study revealed the learning process of elementary teachers' development of engineering PCK through engineering teaching practices. Approaching elementary teachers' learning to teach engineering from the perspectives of innovation adoption and expertise development, the second study revealed the learning to teach engineering process by constructing a framework depicting the stages and dimensions …

Development And Validation Of Pre-Service Teachers' Personal Epistemologies Of Teaching Scale (Pt-Pets), Ji Hyun Yu

Open Access Dissertations

The Internet has changed not only how we conceptualize knowledge, but also how we learn in classroom. Knowledge is not any longer transmitted from experts to non-experts, but is constructed through communication, collaboration, and integration among a network of people. In this context, teachers are expected to facilitate student-centered learning by helping students to construct knowledge through higher-order thinking rather than reproduce a series of facts. Although a growing body of research suggests that teachers' beliefs about the nature of knowledge and the process of knowing, that is personal epistemology, are related to their teaching and their students' learning, little …

Moocs Comparison And Implications For Purdue Nanohub-U Moocs, Wei Zakharov

Teaching and Learning Technologies Presentations

A massive open online course (MOOC) is an online course aiming at large-scale participation and open access via the web. Currently there are three main MOOCs providers: i.e. Udacity, Coursera, and edX. This presentation compared these providers in terms of their technical features and business models. On the other hand, the author presented how Purdue NanoHUB-U designed and developed MOOCs.

Supporting Or Enabling: Developing A Sustainable Support Model For Eportfolio Initiatives, Debra D. Runshe

Teaching and Learning Technologies Presentations

As the eportfolio community has grown, as this conference celebrates, so has the use of eportfolios at Indiana University. ePortfolio use began primarily on the campus at Indianapolis, IUPUI, and has been used there for almost a decade. As eportfolio use scaled up at the university beyond the IUPUI campus, so has the need for support of these sometimes complex projects. Engage in a conversation with the presenter as strategies for successful scaling up are discussed.

Exploring Gradient: An Interactive Online Peer-Review And Assessment Tool., Pat Reid, Akesha Horton

Teaching and Learning Technologies Presentations

Gradient is a web-based writing and peer assessment tool developed by the ITaP Informatics Team at Purdue University. It allows students the opportunity to develop critical reading and writing skills using various scholarly resources. Assignments can be designed to focus on discipline-specific domains, interdisciplinary topics, core curricula, or more general subject areas. Students develop critical-reviewing skills, which can be transferred to various contexts. What makes Gradient unique from similar products is its clean interface, the flexibility it offers for designing assignments, the ability to integrate graphics into assignments, and the process for scoring students.

Examining The Effects Of Computational Tools On Students' Conceptual Understanding Of Thermodynamics Of Material Concepts And Representations, Oyindamola Oluwatimi

Open Access Theses

Technology is becoming a more critical agent for supporting learning as well as research in science and engineering. In particular, technology-based tools in the form of simulations and virtual environments support learning using mathematical models and computational methods. The purpose of this research is to: (a) measure the value added in conveying Thermodynamics of materials concepts with a blended learning environment using computational simulation tools with lectures; and (b) characterize students' use of representational forms to convey their conceptual understanding of core concepts within a learning environment that blended Gibbs computational resource and traditional lectures.

A mix-method approach was implemented …

Investigating The Impact Of Visuohaptic Simulations For Conceptual Understanding In Electricity And Magnetism, Karla Lizeth Sanchez Martinez

Open Access Theses

The present study examined the efficacy of a haptic simulation used as a pedagogical tool to teach freshmen engineering students about electromagnetism. A quasi-experimental design-based research was executed in two iterations to compare the possible benefits the haptic device provided to the cognitive learning of students. In the first iteration of the experiment performance of learners who used visual-only simulations was compared to the performance of those who used visuohaptic. In the second iteration of the experiment modifications were made to learning materials and experiment procedures to enhance research design. Research hypothesis states that multimodal presentation of information may lead …